RICHMOND, Va.— After 22 years in the Army, it was time for Jimmy Kimbrough to change careers. He had been commissioned out of West Point, did a tour in Iraq and a year in Korea. The time was approaching for a career switch or retirement.
Kimbrough, 45, chose the former but still wanted that same fulfillment of helping others that his military service provided. Enter the world of teaching.
He got a dose of teaching at Fort Knox in Kentucky and through running the ROTC program at the College of William and Mary and Christopher Newport University.
“In the Army, I realized it’s not about me, it’s about others,” Kimbrough said. “I wanted a way to still help other people.”
With the help of a new hub hosted at William and Mary, Kimbrough has become a high school social studies teacher. The Troops to Teachers Virginia Center, which opened this spring, helps veterans and current service members who desire to become teachers through networking, counseling and mentorship.
The center helped Kimbrough, a Georgia native, navigate Virginia’s teacher licensing requirements, he said, calling program coordinator Kelley Clark a “drill sergeant” through the process, holding him accountable to deadlines with his best interest in mind.
Since the center’s inception in the spring, it’s served about 700 veterans while providing programs to 10 military installations and collaborating with state higher education institutions. The Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support, a U.S. Department of Defense agency, funds the center – one of 10 across the country – with a $400,000 grant announced in May.
